


Things Unspoken

by an_endeavor



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: 5x19, Aftermath, Dealing with Talbot, F/M, Lighthouse Showdown, and their feelings, as requested, post 5x19
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-02
Updated: 2018-05-02
Packaged: 2019-05-01 09:29:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14517498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/an_endeavor/pseuds/an_endeavor
Summary: Present/Post 5x19. As requested by Christina. The Lighthouse showdown and its aftermath.Shedidn’t lock them in the lighthouse for fifteen years.Shedidn’t lie about dying until it was nearly too late to save her. And shedefinitelydidn’t just stand there looking stupid when her partner revealed his feelings for her. She wondered briefly when she thought it was a good idea to love someone who could be so reckless(Set in the "In the Open" universe but you don't have to read it first for this to make sense).





	Things Unspoken

**Author's Note:**

> I had a request for a 5x19 take and it was a bit of a challenge but I gave it a good shot. 3rd person POV but mainly focusing on May.

She should have known there was more trouble to come. They never had a moment's rest, never a time for calm conversation, leaving them yelling revelations at each other at a moment’s notice, completely leaving the other to deal with its meaning on their own and hopefully, maybe, eventually get around to discussing it later. This time was to be no different. The few strange beings they ditched in the hall seemed to have found them again in the center of the lighthouse, this time with friends. May and Coulson, had friends with them as well but none quite as bloodthirsty and efficient as their current enemy. May was relieved to find that not only was Phil keen on defending his own life in that current moment but hers as well, as he handed her his spare gun, knowing she could hold her own in hand-to-hand but preferring she not need to. Not that it really mattered at this point, they were outmanned and outweaponned. They could have formed a protective circle around him and his chances would still be the same as theirs in that moment. 

Although, they may have had more of a fighting chance if Phil hadn’t set off a nuclear protective alert rather than wait for the menu to read “alien invasion”. Everyone knows to wait for the _entire_ menu to finish reading out before pushing a button. Sometimes she felt like he was doing things specifically to annoy her. That he was intentionally making poor choices so she could yell at him while he just stood there with that irritating, dumbfounded look on his face again.

So, he could give her upset looks all he wanted about sending Daisy on the mission she did, about it being her fault that Daisy couldn’t quake them out. He could think the shoe was on the other foot for a moment, him being angry at her for her decision, but she knew better. _She_ didn’t lock them in the lighthouse for fifteen years. _She_ didn’t lie about dying until it was nearly too late to save her. And she _definitely_ didn’t just stand there looking stupid when her partner revealed his feelings for her. She wondered briefly when she thought it was a good idea to love someone who could be so reckless. 

But it wasn’t the time to dwell on that. It was currently time to focus on staying alive, on the fact that Coulson was still alive and defending himself like he thought he mattered. But their efforts were proving to be relatively ineffective and no amount of positive thinking on either of their parts would fix it. Every minute they fought, their backs got closer and closer to each others, their enemies surrounding them, pushing them together tighter. She saw her team fighting on as they were inching back inescapably and felt her hip graze over Phil’s, knowing they were going down slowly. 

She felt his hand briefly brush over her hip, giving it a squeeze. She knew what that meant, _we had a good run_. It was something unspoken they had created later in their life when they had gotten closer to one another and their calls got even closer than that. She had just kicked herself free of her attacker and was about to reciprocate his action in her own way when Talbot blew the door out of the wall, leaving everyone, enemies included, to pause in their actions and stare dumbstruck at the former general. They remained in silence as he crumpled the aliens with his mind as if they were nothing more than pieces of paper. She didn’t even have words as she watched Phil get carried up into an alien spaceship by Talbot. _Great_ , she thought, _because keeping him alive when he was in my sight wasn’t hard enough_.

\-----

The whole thing with Talbot and his crazed power trip wasn’t something she really cared to think about as she waited for Phil to be sent back down to her to relay Talbot’s ridiculous message, whatever it was. The second his feet were on the floor, she made her way to him, meeting him halfway, and they wrapped each other into an embrace, emitting a sense of relief and what little bit of calm they could into each other. It didn’t matter how angry they were at each other, they knew better than to let a tiny moment like that slip away. If they were being honest, they did it more so to make sure the other wasn’t gone, to reassure themselves they were still alive. They could be passive aggressive and spiteful at a moment like that when the world was done ending and Phil was done dying.

“What the hell Phil?” she questioned as they pulled back from their embrace, “I tell you to stay safe and instead you get yourself taken to an enemy spaceship with a man full of gravitonium?” She was only being half serious, she knew he didn’t really have a choice in the matter. 

“In my defence, I was getting beamed up to a spaceship on a slab of concrete by a guy who can implode people with his mind so I feel like I made the safe choice there.”

\-----

Once they made their plan and Phil was to be sent back to Talbot’s commandeered spaceship, much to Melinda’s displeasure, they found themselves alone for a brief moment while the others followed their orders.

“Don’t do anything stupid.” 

Phil nodded in a noncommittal way, sending a wave of bitterness back through her which was countered by his lips brushing over hers quickly before everyone returned. When she opened her eyes, raising her eyebrow as a question to him, he just shrugged, a slight grin making it over his face. 

“Just thought I’d give it a shot. Just in case.” She decided not to give a verbal response because everyone was filing back into the open space, handing Coulson what Talbot requested, whispering about their secret plan to him as they passed as if they hadn’t just been discussing that plan five minutes ago. She choose instead to roll her eyes at his antics, torn between being upset that he was still doing life threatening things in the state he was in and allowing herself to enjoy what little time she had with him. 

“The real you feels different. I’m glad I can tell the difference.” he quipped before Talbot telekinetically lifted him back off the ground towards the ship.

Her eyebrows knit together in confusion at his statement. “What do you mean ‘the real me’?” she shouted up at him, but it was too late, he was already too far away. Besides, she had more important things to worry about. “Just be safe.” she sighed to herself in his regard. 

She just needed him to stay alive.


End file.
